First Drive: BYD Dolphin from £26,195 will help more families embrace electric cars

The BYD Dolphin medium family hatchback is the third electric car launched in the UK by the Chinese carmaker in six months, and with a starting price of £26,195 it offers electric motoring for about the same cost as a petrol Vauxhall Astra.

A growing number of BYD dealerships are being tasked with helping to ensure Chinese car brand BYD gains consumer awareness in the UK, and with lead times of just one month for BYD Dolphin deliveries the retailers have opportunities to win buyers from other brands still with supply difficulties.

Four trim levels are available, starting with the £26,195 Active which comes only with a 44.9kWh battery and 95PS motor. It is equipped with 16-inch alloys, the L2 driving tech and 360-degree bird’s eye surround view. Rear suspension is the more rustic torsion beam which is the popular fitment for cars in China. It is unlikely to be the best choice for the UK’s pock-marked roads, writes Stephen Briers, group editor of Fleet News and AM.

Boost, priced £27,195, is also limited to the 44.9kWh battery but with a more powerful 176PSkW motor. It adds 17-inch alloys and multi-link rear suspension for greater refinement.

Priced £30,195, Comfort comes with a 60kWh battery and 204PS motor with the addition of front parking sensors, six-speaker audio and heated front seats.

The range-topping Design, priced £31,695, adds dual-tone colour options, panoramic roof, rear privacy glass and wireless phone charger.

Standard spec includes forward collision warning, autonomous emergency braking, rear collision warning, rear cross traffic alert/brake, lane departure prevention and emergency lane keeping assist.

Infotainment and sat-nav is accessed via a 12.8-inch rotating touchscreen which offers portrait and landscape viewing options, while a ‘Hey BYD’ voice control is also standard.

The top two trims (Comfort and Design) with the longer range 60.4kWh battery will be available first, with the lower two trims (Active and Boost) featuring a 44.9kWh battery to follow in Q1 2024.

Pitched as a C-segment car with B-segment exterior proportions, the Dolphin aims to straddle two sectors for maximum appeal in the city and small family car markets. Boot space of 345 litres rises to 1,310 with the rear seats folded, making this a practical electric car for families.

The smaller 44.9kWh battery is expected to attract urban drivers, with the 60.4kWh - shared with the BYD Atto 3 - for those undertaking longer journeys. Range for the 44.9kWh battery is 211 miles for Active and 193 for Boost (lower due to the more powerful motor), and with the 60.4kWh battery option it is officially 265 miles.

Sitting on BYD’s scalable Platform 3.0 platform that underpins its two sister models, the Dolphin also features the Blade battery technology which consists of an array of singular cells protected within a sturdy battery pack.

BYD says Blade improves safety, rigidity and contributes to the structural of the body. It also takes up around half the space of a conventional modular cell.

Depending on the trim level, two steering modes can be selected: comfort and sport, plus the BYD Dolphin has individual settings for driving mode (sport, eco, normal) which affect the accelerator response and braking

There are also two options for regenerative braking – high and standard – but neither go anywhere near one-pedal EV driving. BYD is aiming the Dolphin at the mass market and customers who are used to driving petrol and diesel cars.

From launch BYD has headline PCP terms available at £299 per month for Comfort and £329 for Design. 

BYD UK head of sales Simon Bisp says the total cost of ownership will be “very close” to an equivalent ICE rival.

Bisp told AM that by the end of the year, BYD expects to have a UK network of 27 franchised dealerships, rising to a final figure of around 100 by the end of 2024 as it seeks to win a 6% share of the UK's electric vehicles market, which equates to more than 20,000 sales.

At the launch of the new Dolphin C-sector hatchback, Bisp said: “There is no ceiling to the number of cars we can have; we can be flexible to the market demand. We want to have volume in the UK ready for delivery to keep lead times to a maximum of a month. But if demand exceeds supply, there could be a three- or four-month lead time.”

In addition to the Atto 3 compact SUV, Seal sports saloon and Dolphin now in the market, at this month’s Munich motor show BYD debuted the Seal U, a mid-size SUV which will initially be available as a plug-in hybrid in early 2024 followed by a full electric version later in the year.

“Our plans are to bring out vehicles in the A and D segments in the longer term,” added Bisp.

BYD is poised to launch its first national advertising campaign via Sky AdSmart which enables it to target adverts in the regions where it has one of its nine retail outlets.